The afro-futurist collective will release Ngbaka in November, a true symbiosis between local and electronic music.
Fulu Miziki could be translated as “music from the garbage.” The group explains: “To find the sound we have in mind, we recover things found in the street. If the object reproduces the sound we’re looking for, then it becomes an instrument and we integrate it into our music.” In 2019, PAM explored their artistic fight against ecological disaster. Two years later, the Kinshasa collective released their very first EP, Ngbaka.
Their values and engagements are perfectly illustrated in the video for the track “Ok Seke Bien” in collaboration with Sekelembele. With old flip-flops transformed into drumsticks, drum kits made from jerry cans and outfits mixing various recycled fabrics: “Our look is as important as our music, and it reflects just as much this anti-waste message that we want to convey. Besides, when you think about it, it’s not so shocking to wear what you collect in the garbage, when it’s the clothes you make Mother Nature wear.”
For the first time in its 15-year stint the collective mixes local music in its debut studio project, blending Congolese rumba and soukous with the frenzied BPM of electronic music. We are also able to feel the influences of the diaspora, bringing about harmony with R&B, pop and hip-hop from the United States. it is what makes their music even more chaotic.
Check out “Ok Seke Bien” in our Songs of the Week playlist on Spotify and Deezer.
Pre-order Ngbaka, via Moshi Moshi Records.
